Perspectives on evaluation

You’ve probably come across different perspectives on how to conduct an objective evaluation. Here are two perspectives:

Perspective 1

An established perspective argues that evaluation should strive to maintain objectivity so that “the claims, methods and results of science [evaluation] are not, or should not be influenced by particular perspectives, value commitments, community bias or personal interests, to name a few relevant factors.“ (Reiss & Sprenger, 2014, para 1).

Perspective 2

“There is no such thing as objective evaluation.”

Reflection point

Spend a few minutes reflecting on the two perspectives. Do you agree with one more than another?
Why?

Remember that:

evaluations take place within a specific context, which makes objectivity very difficult

evaluations are limited by the knowledge and skills of the evaluators involved

the scope of an evaluation is limited to the resources at the disposal of the evaluators
(Bergmann, 2010, p.23)

Talking point

Is there such a thing as objective evaluation? Relate the answer to your own experience and share.

References

Reiss, J. & Sprenger, J. (2014). Scientific Objectivity. In The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. The Metaphysics Research Lab and Center for the Study of Language and Information (CSLI), Stanford University. (If you are interested in a detailed philosophical argument around objectivity in evaluation.)